The Voice of the California Asian Pacific American Judiciary
2024-2025 Officers
Hon. Jayne Chong-Soon Lee
San Joaquin County
President
Judge Lee was appointed judge by Governor Newsom in December 2019, and is currently the Supervising Civil Judge at the Superior Court of California, San Joaquin County. She graduated from Yale University and UCLA School of Law. She has taught at Stanford Law School, published law review articles currently used in first year law school classes, and was an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University School of Law. She is the author of a Matthew Bender multi-volume treatise, as well as a contributor to various CEB treatises. She is a frequent lecturer for CEB, PLI, the California State Bar, and various law schools. She has served on curriculum committees for the Center for Judicial Education and Research, as well as executive committees of the California. State Bar. Currently, she serves as Chair of the Probate and Mental Health Advisory Committee of the Judicial Council.
Hon. Jana Seng
Los Angeles County
President-Elect 2024-2025
Judge Jana Seng was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2018 by Governor Jerry Brown and became the first Cambodian American judge appointed to the bench in the state of California. She is currently assigned to Dependency Court at the Edelman Children’s Court in Monterey Park. Prior to her appointment, Judge Seng served as a Head Deputy and trial attorney at the Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defender’s Office. She sits on the Boards of the Asian Pacific American Woman Lawyers Alliance as well as the Criminal Law Section of the California Lawyers Association. Judge Seng received her Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University Long Beach, and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Washington.
Hon. Nathan Vu
Orange County
President-Elect 2025-2026
Judge Nathan Nhan Vu was appointed to the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Orange, in June of 2018 by Governor Jerry Brown. He is currently assigned to the Family Law panel. Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Vu was a Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice, a partner at a top litigation boutique, and a law professor at Chapman University School of Law. Judge Vu is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, and clerked for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Hon. Terry Truong
Los Angeles County
Immediate Past President
Judge Terry T. Truong was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court by Governor Gavin Newsom in December 2022. Prior to that, she served as a commissioner and referee with the same court for a total of 14 years. She also worked at the Los Angeles County Counsel’s Office and as an attorney representing children and parents in the Dependency Court system in Los Angeles. Judge Truong is active in local and statewide committees, including the Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness, California Judges Association Elimination of Bias and Inequality in the Judiciary, and the Judicial Council CJER Juvenile Law Curriculum Committee. Judge Truong received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Irvine and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
Hon. Michelle Ahnn
Los Angeles County
Secretary
Judge Michelle Ahnn is a judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court. She presides over a criminal misdemeanor calendar and trial court in Compton, CA. She was appointed to the bench by Governor Edmund Brown in Nov. 2015. Judge Ahnn graduated from Brown University and UCLA School of Law. She clerked for Judge Napoleon A. Jones Jr. at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (San Diego). From 1999-2001, she served as an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. After her fellowship, she returned to Los Angeles and worked as a Deputy Alternate Public Defender from 2001 to 2015. She is a contributing author to the book, “Tough Cases: Judges Tell the Stories of Some of the Hardest Decisions They’ve Ever Made” (2018).
Hon. Sunil Kulkarni
Santa Clara County
Treasurer
Judge Sunil R. Kulkarni joined the bench in October 2013 and currently has a complex civil litigation assignment. He previously had a range of civil and criminal assignments. Judge Kulkarni also is currently the Supervising Judge of his court’s civil division, and co-chairs his court’s judicial mentorship program.Before becoming a judge, Judge Kulkarni worked as a senior litigation counsel for the University of California. Before UC, he was a partner (and associate) with the Palo Alto office of Morrison and Foerster LLP for 13 years, specializing in intellectual property and securities litigation. He also was a law clerk for the Honorable Oliver W. Wanger, U.S. District Court (E.D. Cal.), from 1996 to 1997. Judge Kulkarni received his law degree with high honors from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1996, and his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering with honors from the University of California, Berkeley in 1993. Judge Kulkarni is married and has two daughters (ages 17 and 14).
Hon. Glenn Kim
Contra Costa County
1st District Representative
On November 11, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom appointed H. Glenn Kim to serve as a Judge in the Contra Costa County Superior Court.  Judge Kim currently handles felony matters in the Pittsburg Superior Court. Prior to his judicial appointment, he was a prosecutor for 14 years. He served as a Deputy District Attorney for 11 years at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and for 3 years at the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.  He has served as a board of director for the Alameda County Bar Association, the Asian Advisory Committee on Crime, the Asian American Prosecutors Association, the Korean American Bar Association of Northern California, the Korean Prosecutors Association, and the DVC Administration of Justice Advisory Committee. Judge Kim earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California, Berkeley.
Hon. Christopher Lui
Los Angeles County
2nd District Representative
Judge Christopher K. Lui was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2014. He is currently assigned to an Independent Calendar civil courtroom in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. Prior to his appointment, Judge Lui practiced in both civil and criminal contexts. After law school, he served as a law clerk to United States District Judge Dickran Tevrizian, and then worked as a civil litigator at O’Melveny & Myers until 2005, when he joined the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office in LA. He returned to private practice in 2011, where he worked at Crowell & Moring. Prior to his appointment to the bench in 2014, Judge Lui practiced civil litigation and white collar criminal defense at Browne George Ross. Judge Lui received his A.B. Degree from U.C. Berkeley and his J.D. from Loyola Law School.
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Hon. Christine Gonong
Los Angeles County
2nd District Representative
Christine J. Gonong is a Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court. She is assigned to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse where she hears family law matters. Previously, she served as a Court Commissioner.
Prior to joining the bench, Christine was the Director of Law and Motion at Nguyen Lawyers, ALC, a plaintiff-side firm that specializes in complex civil litigation involving catastrophic injuries. She was appointed by the California Supreme Court as Trustee for the California State Bar in 2020 and served until March of 2022. Christine was also an Adjunct Professor at University of Southern California Gould School of Law from 2017 to 2022.
Christine served in the Board of Governors for the Philippine American Bar Association’s (PABA) from 2007 to 2019 and has served as PABA's Secretary and President (2015). Christine was Secretary of the National Filipino American Lawyers Association (NFALA) in 2018 to 2019. Christine is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Member of the Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance (APAWLA) Board of Governors.
Christine clerked for Justice Mario R. Ramil of the Hawaii Supreme Court, Judge S. James Otero, Judge Dale S. Fischer, Judge Otis D. Wright II and Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California; and Circuit Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Christine was a commercial litigation associate at Jones Day’s Trial Practice Group.
Christine earned her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2002. She was a Notes and Managing Editor for the Hastings Law Journal and was the first recipient of the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California’s (FBANC) Raymond L. Ocampo, Jr. Scholarship. While in law school, Christine served as a member of the UC Hastings Admissions Committee. Christine received her B.A. in Political Science, magna cum laude, from UCLA, where she was awarded with College Honors and the Morgan Harris Scholarship Award.
Hon. Kara Ueda
Sacramento County
3rd District Representative
Judge Ueda was appointed to the Sacramento County Superior Court in August 2020 by Governor Gavin Newsom. She currently serves in a Family Law assignment. Prior to her appointment, Judge Ueda was a partner at Best Best & Krieger, where she practiced municipal law, and an adjunct law professor at the University of California Davis School of Law. Judge Ueda is a past president of the Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento and the UC Davis School of Law Alumni Board. She received a B.S. in Environmental Policy, Analysis, and Planning from UC Davis and a J.D. from UC Davis School of Law.
Hon. Corey G. Lee
San Bernardino County
4th District Representative
Judge Lee was appointed to the San Bernardino County Superior Court in July 2015. She is currently assigned to a criminal trial court in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. Before her appointment, Judge Lee was deputy chief of the Riverside Branch, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, where she served as an assistant U.S. attorney since 2008. She served as a deputy district attorney at the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office and at the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office from 2004 to 2008. Through the U.S. Attorney General’s Honor Program, Judge Lee served as a law clerk at the Executive Office of Immigration Review in Los Angeles from 2003 to 2004. Prior to her legal career, Judge Lee worked for the Office of Management and Budget, the Health Care Financing Administration, and as a legislative fellow at the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. Judge Lee received her B.A. from University of Pennsylvania, M.S. from Columbia University School of Social Work, and J.D. from Loyola Law School.
Hon. Vibhav Mittal
Orange County
4th District Representative
Vibhav Mittal is an Orange County Superior Court judge, where he currently serves in the Juvenile Court handling juvenile delinquency matters. Judge Mittal was appointed to the bench in September 2021 by Governor Gavin Newsom. Prior to that, Judge Mittal had been an Assistant United States Attorney at the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, where he served as a Deputy Chief in Santa Ana, California. At the start of his legal career, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Amul Thapar (the first South Asian Article III federal judge) and worked at Quinn Emanuel LLP in San Francisco on patent and trade secret litigation.
Judge Mittal had been lead counsel on 13 criminal trials, filed over 20 appellate briefs, and argued seven times before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He was also a Field Organizer and Campaign Fellow for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2010. Judge Mittal received his law degree from the New York University School of Law. Before going to law school, he worked in the semiconductor industry. Judge Mittal obtained a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Hon. Jeff Mangar
Stanislaus County
5th District Representative
Judge Jeff Mangar was elected to the Stanislaus County Superior Court in March 2020 and is currently assigned to a Felony Jury Trial Court. His parents immigrated to the United States as young adults. His mother, a nurse, hails from Cebu Island in the Philippines, while his father, who was raised in Guyana, South America, was the first in his family to attain a college degree.
Prior to being elected, Judge Mangar accumulated over 22 years of experience as a prosecutor, most recently serving as Chief Deputy District Attorney. In 2019, he was honored as Prosecutor of the Year by the National Asian Pacific Islander Prosecutors’ Association (NAPIPA). He is a Certified Criminal Law Specialist recognized by the State Bar of California’s Board of Legal Specialization, and has served as a grader for the California Bar Exam.
Judge Jeff Mangar has served as President of several professional associations, including the Stanislaus County Bar Association, the Stanislaus County Peace Officers’ Association, and the Stanislaus County Prosecutors Association. Additionally, Judge Mangar is a private pilot and a certified advanced scuba diver.
Hon. Hanley Chew
Santa Clara County
6th District Representative
Hanley Chew is a judge at the Santa Clara County Superior Court, where he currently serves in a felony trial and preliminary hearing assignment. Before his appointment in November 2021, he was an Assistant US Attorney in the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Crimes unit of the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and in the Organized Crime and Terrorism unit in the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. He also spent 11 years in private practice, specializing in securities litigation, intellectual property, privacy, and cybersecurity. He received his A.B. degree from Harvard University, and J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is a former Board member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Silicon Valley and a former Chairperson of the Board of Directors for Asian Americans for Community Involvement.
Hon. Benjamin Reyes II
Contra Costa County
Co-Chair, Judicial Appointments
Judge Reyes was appointed as a Judge of the Superior Court by Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr. May 22, 2017. He is the first Filipino American appointed to the Contra Costa Superior Court and the second Filipino American judge appointed to the nine Bay Area Counties.
For most of his 24 years as an attorney, Judge Reyes managed a public agency practice. Judge Reyes was an Equity Principal at the boutique public agency law firm, Meyers Nave. He served on the firm’s Executive Committee and chaired the firm’s statewide public contracts practice group. Through Meyers Nave, he also served as City Attorney for the Cities of Pinole and Union City.
Judge Reyes is an Eagle Scout and is the past President of the Boy Scouts of America, Alameda Council. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves where he earned the coveted United States Army Parachutist Badge (Airborne).
Judge Reyes currently serves as the Supervising Judge of the Contra Costa Superior Court’s family law division and manages the Spinetta Family Law Center and courthouse. He also serves on the court’s Executive Committee. Judge Reyes is active in the Filipino Bar Association of Northern California, the Asian American Bar Association, the Contra Costa County Bar Association and the California Judges Association. He is past chair of the California Asian Pacific American Judges Association Political Action Committee. Judge Reyes sits on the faculty of Berkeley Law, where he teaches an advocacy course for LLM Students. Judge Reyes also serves on the faculty of the University of San Francisco School of Law’s Intensive Advocacy Program.
Judge Reyes earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Hon. Terry Truong
Los Angeles County
Co-Chair, Judicial Appointments
Judge Terry T. Truong was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court by Governor Gavin Newsom in December 2022. Prior to that, she served as a commissioner and referee with the same court for a total of 14 years. She also worked at the Los Angeles County Counsel’s Office and as an attorney representing children and parents in the Dependency Court system in Los Angeles. Judge Truong is active in local and statewide committees, including the Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness, California Judges Association Elimination of Bias and Inequality in the Judiciary, and the Judicial Council CJER Juvenile Law Curriculum Committee. Judge Truong received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Irvine and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
Hon. Christine Dehr
Placer Superior Court
Subordinate Judicial Officer Liason
Commissioner Dehr was appointed effective January 1, 2024. Ms. Dehr has served the Placer Superior Court as a Senior Legal Research Attorney for the past 12 years. Prior to her current position, Ms. Dehr served as Deputy County Counsel for the Yuba County Counsel’s Office. She received her J.D. degree from McGeorge School of Law.
Hon. Dorothy Chou Proudfoot
San Francisco Rent Board
ALJ Liaison
Judge Proudfoot is an Administrative Law Judge at the San Francisco Rent Board, presiding over arbitration hearings in residential rent control cases and mediating landlord-tenant disputes. She earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. She practiced civil litigation at Heller Ehrman LLP before spending sixteen years as a Marin County Deputy District Attorney.She serves on the Executive Board of the Earl Warren American Inn of Court, of which she is a Past President, the Board of the Asian American Bar Association Law Foundation, and the Council of the California Band Alumni Association. She was also the first Asian-American President of the Marin County Bar Association. She was the recipient of the Alameda County Bar Association’s 2023 Distinguished Service Award for a Judicial Officer.